PROPAGANDA METHODS 213
help asking what is the object of the request to send "presents'*
to Russia.1
The success obtained by Russian propaganda—wireless,
films, pamphlets^ etc.—still depends to a certain degree on
the art of devising slogans and catchwords to create an impres-
sion of remarkable progress and a high standard of living. For
example, one of the most frequently mentioned sayings of
1934 was that of Stalin that "the collective farms were to be
made Bolshevik and the collective farm peasants made pros-
perous." On January 3, 1934, the Moscow radio sent out a
press notice in German for the benefit of the collective farm
papers of the German settlement on the Volga. It ran:
"At yesterday's sitting of the central executive committee
of German collective farms of the Odessa region. Comrade
Merz reported that Comrade Stalin's watchword, The col-
lective farms are to be made Bolshevik and the collective farm
peasants made prosperous' has already been made a reality. In
*932 56 per cent of our collective farm peasants had cows; in
1933 the percentage was 89 per cent. Our slogan now is that by
May 1,1934, all collective farm peasants of the district are to
have their own cows/* Comrade Merz further reported: "In
1932 the collective farm peasant received on an average 2}
kilograms of grain per unit of work. In 1933* they each received
12 kilos. These few figures,3* Merz concluded his press report,
"show that we have made a reality of Comrade Stalin's slogan."
After such figures, it is hard indeed to doubt that Stalin's
catchword has been translated into fact!
1 Here is another example of this propaganda. When a remittance was
sent from Austria^ three collective farm workers from Bergdorf (autonomous
Moldavian republic) replied as follows: "You have come to the wrong
address; we are not your 'suffering brethren.* We are led by the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, headed by our beloved Stalin. We have every
opportunity of leading a cultured and prosperous life in our Socialist
fatherland, and we do not require a single Fascist penny. We reject your
assistance, to which we have replied by the rapid realization of the loan of
the third year of the second five-year plan. By means of this loan we are
strengthening our country and ensuring the future growth of its prosperity.**
2 When there was a severe famine.